Shor language

Shor
Шор тили šor tili, Тадар тили tadar tili
Native to	Russia
Region	Kemerovo
Ethnicity	Shors
Native speakers	2,800 (2010 census)
Language family	Turkic Siberian Shor
Writing system	Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cjs
Glottolog	shor1247

The Shor language (Шор тили) is a Turkic language spoken by about 2,800 people in a region called Mountain Shoriya, in the Kemerovo Province in southwest Siberia. Presently, not all ethnic Shors speak Shor, and the language suffered a decline from the late 1930s to the early 1990s. However, the dissolution of the Soviet Union brought about the Shor lingual revival. The language is now taught at the Novokuznetsk branch of the Kemerovo State University.

Like its neighbor languages, Shor has borrowed many roots from Mongolian, as well as words from Russian. The two main dialects are Mrasu and Kondoma, named after the districts where they are spoken. Differences between these dialects are small.

Shor was first written with a Cyrillic alphabet introduced by Christian missionaries in the middle of the 19th century. After a number of changes, the modern Shor alphabet is another Cyrillic alphabet.

To highlight the endangered status of the language, Gennady Kostochakov published a book of poems in Shor entitled, "I am the Last Shor Poet".

Morphology and syntax

Pronouns

Shor has seven personal pronouns:

Personal pronouns

Singular		Plural
Shor (transliteration)	English	Shor (transliteration)	English
мен (men)	I	пис (pis)	we
сен (sen)	you (singular)	силер/слер (siler/sler)	you (plural, formal)
ол (ol)	he/she/it	ылар/лар, олар/алар (ılar/lar, olor/alar)	they (animate?)
		пылар/плар (pılar/plar)	they (inanimate?)

Writing System

Missionary Alphabet

The first book written in the Shor language was published in 1885. It used a modified Russian alphabet (excluding Ё ё, Ф ф, Щ щ, and Ѣ ѣ) with additional letters Ј ј, Ҥ ҥ, Ӧ ӧ, and Ӱ ӱ.

In 1927 an official alphabet was adopted, being the Russian alphabet (excluding Ё ё and ъ) with additional letters Ј ј, Ҥ ҥ, Ӧ ӧ, and Ӱ ӱ.

Latin Alphabet

A Latin alphabet for the Shor language was introduced in 1930: A a, B в, C c, D d, Ə ə, F f, G g, Ƣ ƣ, I i, J j, K k, Q q, M m, N n, N̡ n̡, O o, Ө ө, P p, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, Ş ş, Z z, Ƶ ƶ, L l, Ь ь, Y y, Į į.

The order of the letters was later changed to correspond with alphabets for other languages in the Soviet Union, the letter Ә ә was replaced with E e, and the letter Į į was dropped.

Modern Alphabet

In 1938 the Latin alphabet was replaced with a Cyrillic one. It used the Russian alphabet with additional letters Ӧ ӧ, Ӱ ӱ, and Нъ нъ. After reforms in 1980 it reached its present form: А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Ғ ғ, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Қ қ, Л л, М м, Н н, Ң ң, О о, Ӧ ӧ, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ӱ ӱ, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я.

Comparison of Shor Alphabets

Cyrillic		Latin	Cyrillic
1885	1927-1930	1930-1938	1938-1980	1980–present
А а	A a	A a	А а	А а
Б б	Б б	B в	Б б	Б б
В в	В в	V v	В в	В в
Г г	Г г	G g	Г г	Г г
Г г	Г г	Ƣ ƣ	Г г	Ғ ғ
Д д	Д д	D d	Д д	Д д
Е е	Е е		Е е	Е е
				Ё ё
Ж ж	Ж ж	Ƶ ƶ	Ж ж	Ж ж
З з	З з	Z z	З з	З з
И и, I i, Ѵ ѵ	И и	I i, Į į	И и	И и
Й й	Й й	J j	Й й	Й й
К к	К к	K k	К к	К к
К к	К к	Q q	К к	Қ қ
Л л	Л л	L l	Л л	Л л
М м	М м	M m	М м	М м
Н н	Н н	N n	Н н	Н н
Ҥ ҥ	Ҥ ҥ	N̡ n̡	Нъ нъ	Ң ң
О о	О о	О о	О о	О о
Ӧ ӧ	Ө ө	Ө ө	Ӧ ӧ	Ӧ ӧ
П п	П п	P p	П п	П п
Р р	Р р	R r	Р р	Р р
С с	С с	S s	C c	C c
Т т	Т т	T t	Т т	Т т
У у	У у	U u	У у	У у
Ӱ ӱ	Ӱ ӱ	Y y	Ӱ ӱ	Ӱ ӱ
Ѳ ѳ	Ф ф	F f	Ф ф	Ф ф
Х х	Х х		Х х	Х х
Ц ц	Ц ц		Ц ц	Ц ц
Ч ч, J j	Ч ч	C c	Ч ч	Ч ч
Ш ш	Ш ш	Ş ş	Ш ш	Ш ш
	Щ щ		Щ щ	Щ щ
ъ			ъ	ъ
Ы ы	Ы ы	Ь ь	Ы ы	Ы ы
ь	ь		ь	ь
Э э	Э э	Ə ə, Е е	Э э	Э э
Ю ю	Ю ю		Ю ю	Ю ю
Я я	Я я		Я я	Я я

Further reading

• Roos, Marti, Hans Nugteren, and Zinaida Waibel. Khakas and Shor proverbs and proverbial sayings. Exploring the Eastern Frontiers of Turkic, ed. by Marcel Erdal and Irina Nevskaya, pp. 60 (2006): 157-192. (Turcologica 60.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

External links

• Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia: The Shor language
• The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire: The Shors
• The Shor alphabet